Chance Meeting
by Leiria
Summary: Juno is shopping in preparation for her wedding and she happens to bump into Vanessa and the baby she once gave up. The meeting takes its toll on her and she comes to a decision: It's time to start a family-for real this time.


**Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me. They are borrowed and this story is based on a fantastic movie. I make no money from this.**  
**Juno went to go to the mall one day. She never expected what to stumble on what she found while she was there.**

**Chance Meeting**

Juno didn't venture to the mall all that often anymore. Every time she did, she remembered the day when she'd bumped into Vanessa while she was still pregnant. It haunted her. It made her regret her decision to give up her son. There were still days when she would be sitting by herself in her bedroom and she would break down in tears. She had only one photograph of her son; one of the ultrasound pictures she had been given that day when her stepmother had made the ultrasound technician cry. That photograph was kept in a shoebox with other things that she had kept from those days.

Necessity, however, had brought her to that very mall today. She couldn't help but retrace her steps and find herself looking down at the playground once more. She felt her heart stop when she saw Vanessa once again. This time, she was playing with a little boy who had Bleeker's hair and Juno's nose. Juno stepped up to the railing and gripped it as she looked down in shock. She never expected to see them again.

The pain of losing her son gripped her heart as she watched how happy they seemed. The boy screamed and laughed as he made Vanessa chase him around the toys. Juno watched them, wondering if she would have been half as good a mother as Vanessa appeared to be. She winced when the little boy tripped and fell and began to cry. Vanessa gathered him up and carried him to the wall that surrounded the play area and set him down so she could check on his hands, knees, and face. She kissed every spot that had a scrape and by the time she was finished, the boy was smiling again. Vanessa gathered him up in her arms once more and started walking toward the escalator. Juno was frozen to the spot and didn't know what to do. She was torn between placing herself in Vanessa's path and getting as far away from them as she could.

When she finally moved, it was too late. She turned and tried to get away because she knew she wouldn't be able to handle seeing them up close. When she turned, Vanessa gasped. "Juno?" she asked.

Juno froze. She slowly nodded. "Hey, Vanessa," she said. The boy had Bleeker's eyes. "How's it going?"

Vanessa gave Juno an awkward smile. "Good," she said. "We're just getting some new clothes for Alex. He's going to start going to preschool in a couple of months so I just want to make sure we're prepared for it."

Juno nodded. "Wow, school already?" she asked. She knew it was coming. "Time really flies…."

Vanessa nodded. "So how are you?" she asked.

Juno smiled. "Good, good," she said. "I uh…I just got a job at the newspaper. I'm going to be writing those articles in the back that no one ever reads, so that'll be fun. Um…Bleek and I are actually getting married in like a month, so it's really crazy, you know? It should be pretty cool though. We're going to have it at the park and our band's going to play for the reception and all that. I'm like totally stoked for it."

Vanessa smiled brightly. "That's fantastic," she said. "I'm sure you two will be happy together."

Juno smiled. "Thanks," she said. "So, uh…do you still talk to Mark?" she asked.

Vanessa sighed. "No," she said. "After the divorce was finalized, he moved to California and I haven't heard from him since. He doesn't want anything to do with us so he's trying to become Kurt Cobain."

"Wow," Juno said softly. "Are there any potential second husbands?" she asked. "Or are you going to do the single-parent thing for a while longer?"  
"Um no, actually, there is a man at work that I've been seeing. He hasn't met Alex yet because I don't want to bring a lot of men around him in case they don't work out. I'm hopeful though. He seems really nice and he already has two of his own children from his first wife. She didn't want kids either, so we have a lot in common in that respect."

Juno nodded. "I hope it works out for you," she said. She looked at the boy on Vanessa's hip. He was so big. Perfect, really. Still perfect. "He's big," she said softly.

Vanessa nodded. "Yeah," she said. She sighed. "I should go," she said. "We really shouldn't…"

"Oh, totally," Juno said, plastering a smile back on her face. "It was good to see you," she said. "Good luck with the clothes."

Vanessa nodded. "You too," she said. "And congratulations on the wedding."

Juno nodded, turned around, and walked away as quickly as she could. She couldn't remember why she'd come to the mall in the first place, but she couldn't seem to leave fast enough. She raced out to her car, got into the driver's seat, and started to cry. She held her hands over her stomach and remembered the way he had felt inside of her womb. She'd tried to pretend that it wasn't that big of a deal, but seeing them, talking to them, seeing him, made her resolve crumble.

"GOD!" she screamed before she hit the steering wheel. She reached into the bag on the seat beside her and dug her cell phone out of it. She flipped it open and scrolled through the contacts until she reached Bleeker's number. She called him before she was calm enough to say anything. When she put the phone up to her ear, she was still sobbing.

"Hey, Junebug," he said before he heard her crying. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Where are you?"

"The mall," Juno gasped. "They were here."

"They?" Bleeker asked. "You mean the Lorings?"

"No, I mean my deadbeat mom and her five kids; who else would I mean?" Juno snapped.

"I'm on my way," Bleeker said. "I'll be there in about five minutes."

"I'm in the car," Juno said.

* * *

It was later that night while they were lying on the floor of their living room that Juno realized what seeing them had really done for her. The movie played above their heads, but neither of them were really interested in watching it. Bleeker was quiet, which was normal on days when their son was brought up. Juno wasn't sure how to even start the conversation. She sighed for the third time in less than ten minutes, which clued Bleeker into the fact that there was something heavy on her mind.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "Aside from today?"

Juno sighed. "I want a baby," she said. "One that we actually get to keep this time. Seeing them today made it really hit home for me. I want to do things right this time, Bleek. I want to start a family."

"Shouldn't we wait until after the wedding?" Bleeker asked. "I mean, the first time we had sex, you were pregnant right away, so we should probably wait at least that long. I hear it's easier the second time around…"

"You know, I heard that too," Juno replied. "I'm not saying that I want to get started right now," she said. "I mean, I just got my job at the paper so I should probably be there for a little while before we actually start going on that front, you know, just to make sure that we can manage it and all. I'm just saying that I'm ready for a kid."

"What did he look like?" Bleeker asked softly.

Juno sighed and rolled onto her stomach. "He looked like someone took you and me and mixed us up," she said. "He had your hair and eyes, my nose…. He was perfect…."

Bleeker sighed. "We'll start trying after the wedding," he promised her. "This time, we'll do it right."

* * *

1 Year Later

Juno looked down at the baby in her arms. She smiled brightly and kissed his forehead gently. "Hi," she whispered. Bleeker reached over and smoothed the baby's hair back before he kissed Juno's cheek. "He's perfect," he whispered in her ear. "He's ours."

Juno nodded before she looked over at the doorway of her hospital room. Her father stood in the doorway with a proud smile on his face. Bleeker took the que from his wife's expression and nodded to her before he walked passed his father-in-law. Mac walked in and sat down in the chair next to Juno's bed and put a hand on her shoulder before he brushed the hair from her forehead.

"How are you feeling, Junebug?" he asked.

Juno smiled at her father. "Like I'm completely amazed, you know?" she asked. "I mean, I knew what the buildup was like, but now I'm actually here for the main event and it's like... wow, you know?" she asked.

Mac nodded. "I do," he replied. "I've been through it twice remember?" he asked. "Man, I remember the first time I held you," he said with a smile on his face. "We were in the hospital and it was just your mom and I. You were fifteen minutes old," he continued. "You just looked up at me with those big brown eyes of yours and I knew that you were going to change everything. You're going to go through a lot now, Juno. Nothing will ever be the same." He stood and kissed his daughter's forehead. "I told you that you'd be back here on your terms some day."

Juno looked down at her son as her father walked out of the room. "Welcome to the world, Sid," she whispered.


End file.
